I remember racing home from school to watch Dragonball Z. I remember blank pages that I filled with Goku and Vegeta and Trunks.
I remember trying to draw those trousers especially. All the twists and folds. Spending hour after hour tracing and then trying it myself. Had my disappointment at my inability not been so great, maybe I’d have gone on to become the artist I wanted to be.
Instead, I’m here writing these words.
I got in trouble for using up my dad’s printer ink as I scoured the internet for pictures and news of Dragonball Z. This was in that strange period where some episodes were here but most were not and there was no way to really get any news about why or when there’d be more.
Even setting aside all the hooting and hollering, all the punching and kicking, the energy shooting out of people’s hands, what really drew me in were the images. The imagery.
It was part of the appeal of Dragon Quest way back when. Not only for me, but for everyone. Akira Toriyama was instrumental in Dragon Quest’s success, which, in important ways, makes him one of the most significant figures in the history of the JRPG genre.
And the man only drew the pictures and designed the characters!
I’ve mentioned before how much I love the art of Yoshitaka Amano, but Toriyama is sort of his opposite. And yet I love him just as much, though it’s a different sort of attachment.
The attachment of a little boy who dreamt of so much more, who wanted to be someone who could fly, shoot magic out of my hands, who could save the world.
Toriyama gave us a vehicle to get in and take us to the moon.
I don’t know anything about the man as a person, but I don’t need to. He gave us all this art instead. And that’s enough for me. All I want, really.
He lived his life and shared his dreams and we still have so much of his to hold onto, to stare at, to fill our heads with.
So goodnight, Toriyama.
How to cite: rathke, e. “Goodnight, Akira Toriyama.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 13 Mar. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/03/13/akira-toriyama.
e rathke writes about books and games at radicaledward.substack.com. A finalist for the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award, he is the author of Glossolalia, Howl, and several other forthcoming novellas. His short fiction appears in Queer Tales of Monumental Invention, Mysterion Magazine, Shoreline of Infinity, and elsewhere. [All contributions by e rathke.]
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